Born to a Stone Age culture, Escumbuit seems destined to vault to fame in a struggle that has locked Aboriginal Indians and English settlers in mortal combat over control of their ancestral lands. From his youthful vision quest in search of his Manatou, to the taking of his first scalps, his legend as a ruthless warrior captures the attention of Indian and paleface alike. The 98 notches on his famous war club mark only a portion of his 150 victims. The specter of Escumbuit and his warriors robed in wolf and bearskins, advancing on snowshoes to attack snowbound settlements terrorizes the Colonists. The English denounce him as a cruel monster as French allies join him in raids that range from Andover, Massachusetts to Newfoundland. The description of Indian survival skills, customs and spiritual beliefs woven into the fabric of the story offer a rare insight into the Indian way of life. The fate of female and children captives taken to Canada by the Indians is not the horror that one might expect. King Louis the XIV invites Escumbuit to France where he is knighted and showered with presents at the Palace of Versailles.
In Paris he engages in a duel with a French fencing master and is invited to the Cathedral of Notre Dame by the Jesuit Charlevoix, who is the King's historian. The French elite seeks his company and Parisian women vie for his attention. On his return to his tribe in Central Maine he suffers reversals in his spectacular rise to fame. Idolised by the French and despised by the English, he mellows in the warmth of a new wife and family and hopes to assure their security by commercialising a silver mine he discovered in his youth. The French and Indian wars against the British provide the tapestry upon which the epic career of this famous Abenaki Chief is played out.